PANAJI
People in Chimbel were on Thursday astonished to see cucumbers dumped in the thousands in their locality but it turns out it was produce damaged in transit from the farm to the shelves.
According to Chandrahas Desai, the Managing Director of Goa State Horticulture Corporation (GSHL), one of the trucks transporting the cucumber was involved in an accident at Bicholim.
"In the melee, the heavy rains damaged the stock of cucumber rendering it unfit for consumption," Desai said, adding that it was therefore dumped on a plot in Chimbel where there are pits.
He said, these rejected vegetables as a matter of routine are recycled after composting as manure.
Two years ago a similar incident where large quantities of cucumber was dumped in a quarry had surfaced around Ganesh Chaturthi time at Sanguem.
At the time, Agriculture Department officials had ruled out the produce belonging to local farmers.
Officials had explained it as possibly a bad business judgement by private vegetable vendors who imported the produce thinking it would sell during Chaturthi but didn't.
